IRT Lexington Avenue Line
}} ::This article is about the IRT New York City Subway line in Manhattan. For former BMT elevated line in Brooklyn, see BMT Lexington Avenue Line. The Lexington Avenue Line (sometimes called the Lex, the 4-5-6 or the IRT East Side Line) is one of the major lines in the New York City Subway. A large segment of it used to be part of the first subway line in New York. Being the only line in to directly serve the and East Midtown, the four-track IRT Lexington Avenue Line is the most crowded in the country. Its average of 1.3 million daily riders is "more than the combined ridership of San Francisco, Chicago, and Boston's entire transit systems." (Second Avenue Subway FEIS, p. 1–6). Its ridership also exceeds that of the 614,000 daily trips on the entire Washington Metro (SAS FEIS, p. 1–5). The Second Avenue Line has been proposed to fix this problem. Several stations along this line have been abandoned. When platforms were lengthened to fit 10 cars, new entrances were built for adjacent stations, making the abandoned ones redundant. For example, 14th Street-Union Square has an entrance on 16th, and 23rd Street has an entrance on 20th, so 18th Street station was abandoned. Extent and service Services that use the Lexington Avenue Line are colored green. The following services use part or all of the Lexington Avenue Line: The line sees service limited rush hours in the peak direction-two trains heading to Brooklyn and four trains heading to the Bronx-to clear congestion. The Lexington Avenue Line begins at the inner loop at South Ferry station, which is currently used to turn 5''' trains at all times except rush hours. North of the station is a merge with the tracks of the Joralemon Street Tunnel from , which become the express tracks. These run north under Broadway and Park Row to Centre Street. At the south end of Center Street, directly under , is the abandoned City Hall loop and station, which was the southern terminus of the original IRT subway line. The loop is still used to turn '''6 service; the Lexington Avenue local tracks, which feed the loop, rise up to join the express tracks just south of Brooklyn Bridge-City Hall station. From Brooklyn Bridge, the line continues northward in a four-across track layout under Centre Street, Lafayette Street, Fourth Avenue, and Park Avenue South until 42nd Street. At this point, the beginning of 's Park Avenue tunnel in forces the Lexington Avenue Line to shift slightly eastward to Lexington Avenue; its 42nd Street-Grand Central station is located on the diagonal between Park and Lexington. Just south of Grand Central, a single non-revenue track connects the IRT 42nd Street Shuttle to the southbound local track; this was part of the original IRT subway alignment. Under Lexington Avenue, the line assumes a two-over-two track configuration, with the local tracks running on the upper level and the express on the lower, although it briefly returns to a four-across layout between 96th Street and 116th Street stations. 125th Street station maintains this two-over-two layout, although here the upper level is used by northbound trains (both local and express) and the lower level by southbound trains (again, both local and express). North of 125th Street, a flying junction marks the end of the line, where it splits into the IRT Jerome Avenue Line (4''' and '''5) and the IRT Pelham Line (6 and ). History The part of the line from City Hall to just south of 42nd Street was part of the original line, opened on October 27, 1904. An extension to Fulton Street opened at 12:01 a.m. on January 16, 1905. The next station, Wall Street, was opened on June 12, 1905. http://nycsubway.org/irt/tenyears.html The first revenue train on the South Ferry extension left South Ferry at 11:59 p.m. on July 9, 1905; the extension of the IRT White Plains Road Line to West Farms opened just after. The first train ran through the Joralemon Street Tunnel to Brooklyn about 12:45 a.m. on January 9, 1908. The rest of the line, north to 125th Street, opened on July 17, 1918. However, until the evening of August 1, 1918, it ran as a shuttle on the local tracks only, terminating at 42nd Street and at 167th Street on the IRT Jerome Avenue Line (where the connection from the elevated IRT Ninth Avenue Line merged). On August 1, service patterns were changed, and the Lexington Avenue Line became a through route. The IRT Broadway-Seventh Avenue Line also switched from shuttle operation at that time, and the IRT 42nd Street Shuttle was formed along the old connection between the sides. Due to the shape of the system, it was referred to as the "H system". Also on August 1, the first section of the IRT Pelham Line opened to Third Avenue-138th Street. Station listing External links *nycsubway.org — IRT East Side Line References *"Fulton St. Trains Monday," New York Times, January 14, 1905, p. 5 *"Subway at Fulton Street Busy," New York Times, January 17, 1905, p.9 *"Subway Trains Run Again This Morning," New York Times, June 13, 1905, p. 1 *"Subway Trains Running from Bronx to Battery," New York Times, July 10, 1905, p. 1 *"Subway to Brooklyn Opened for Traffic," New York Times, January 9, 1908, p. 1 *"Lexington Av. Line to be Opened Today," New York Times, July 7, 1918, p. 13 *"Open New Subway Lines to Traffic; Called a Triumph," New York Times, August 2, 1918, p. 1 *"Old City Hall Station of IRT to Close Monday," New York Times, December 27, 1945, p. 24 *"IRT Station to be Closed," New York Times, November 6, 1948, p. 29 *"New Platform for IRT Locals at Brooklyn Bridge to End Jams," New York Times, September 1, 1962, p. 42 *"M.T.A. Expected to Save Franklin Avenue Shuttle, Once an Austerity Target," New York Times, February 10, 1977, p. 27